NEWS

A Plea And A Cry For Ending The 6 Million Congolese Deaths

October
2008

A PLEA AND A CRY FOR ENDING
THE 6 MILLION CONGOLESE DEATHS

History taught us that the holocaust carried
out against the Jews by Adolf Hitler extinguished the life
of about 6 million Jews in World War II. It made all of the
Western countries mobilize and work hard to make sure that
such a situation would never again happen on the European
soil, though the Yugoslavia conflict did in fact occur. It
was a situation that brought a lot of consciousness to most
of the Westerners and the rest of the world—one that
make them want to do their best to make sure that the Jews
would never have to experience that situation again, no matter
where they are.

The Rwandan genocide of 1994 took the lives of innocent people
about 800.000 in a very short amount of time. I do clearly
stipulate the inclusivity without excluding or labeling –
Tutsi or Hutu – since all that were killed, are and
were Rwandan. The story which was revealed was very alarming,
as it was very obvious that the Security Council and the UN
in general, failed to prevent the genocide from occurring.
It subsequently declared that it will not again allow such
a situation to occur, particularly the US, under the Bill
Clinton administration.

The estimated people killed in Sudan during the Darfur crisis
was 200,000 by 2006. This situation led the Bush administration
to openly declare that there was a real genocide happening
in the Darfur region, which the UN had accepted and tried
to send some of its troops alongside the African Union.

Since 1998 to 2008, the death toll of Eastern Congolese has
reached 6 million, particularly women being raped, and having
their vagina stabbed. The number of deaths has reached the
equivalent of the Jewish holocaust, 7 times that of the Rwandan
genocide, and 30 times the death toll in the Darfur situation.
But the Congolese situation has been taken lightly by the
UN and rest of international community since the 17.000 UN
peacekeepers are, to some extent, being overwhelmed by the
situation.

Genocide is mostly defined as it relates to the mass murder
of a particular targeted group of people. In the first example,
it was the Jewish community, the second the Tutsi and Hutu
moderate, and in the third case, the Darfur black people.
My cry and my plea are to expand the understanding of the
term by looking at the roots of the word. I split the word
into two: Geno which would equal to GENE and -cide which equals
to KILLING etymologically. In other words, I do look at this
term in a way that whenever the KILLING of millions of GENES
as HUMAN BEINGS is occurring, it should be taken and looked
upon as a serious genocide, whether it is happening in a group
like the Jews, the Tutsi, and Darfurian, or to a group of
people from a particular country like the Eastern Congolese.

As the title reflects what I am trying to present: it is
a profound cry coming from a progressive heart-feeling and
serious historical reflection about the situation in Eastern
Congo. I just finished my Master Degree in International Studies
Peace, Conflict and Development. I do recognize that negotiation
remains the most important tool for resolving most of the
conflicts in the world. TACKLING THE ROOT CAUSES of any conflict
and REALLY UNDERSTANDING THE REASONS BEHIND THE ACTIONS OF
THE BELLIGERENTS, are the keys to well integrated ending to
most of conflicts and the future prevention of conflict. Otherwise,
if some of the people who are involved in the conflict feel
left out after a breaking of any agreement, a “Peace-Spoiler
Syndrome” may occur.

The situation in the Eastern Congo started with the MASS
EXODUS of Rwandan fleeing from the genocide mixed with the
perpetrators. It escalated into war in 1996 when Kabila the
Father came with Rwandan and Ugandan soldiers accompanied
him to cease power from the dictator Mobutu who ruled the
country recklessly from 1965 to 1997. Kabila the Father took
power from 1997 to 2001, at which time he was assassinated
and was replaced by his son. The latter is the first democratically
elected president of the DRCongo. He got elected in 2006 after
a period of transitional government that included all the
former rebels’ leaders – a result of Inter-Congolese
dialogue - , though a fringe of some Tutsi rebels refused
to integrated the army.

The situation keeps going on with renegade Tutsi soldier
general Nkunda – sustained by Rwanda - who is allegedly
stipulating that he is protecting the Tutsi population of
Eastern Congo who are still threatened by the presence of
the former Rwandan militia Interhamwe and FDLR, a group of
Rwandan Hutu Refugees dispersed throughout the forests of
the Eastern Congo. At the same time, these Hutu would also
like to have an Inter-Rwandan dialogue, which would lead to
some agreement among all Rwandan. The Rwandan government does
not want to hear such a suggestion because it says that there
is no way to sit around the table with the perpetrators of
the genocide. Meanwhile, the 6 million people killed in Congo
seemed to be overlooked because the genocide of the Tutsi
is still fresh in the mind of the big powers of the world.
The Congolese soldiers are just recently being formed as a
whole and are still very weak—unable to defend those
of the Eastern part. At times, there has also been some mismanagement
within the system that gives opportunity to FDLR and NKUNDA
to continue.

My plea, Sir/Madam, is to please consider my cry to what
is happening as a real genocide. Just imagine if it was one
of your sisters being raped, stabbed in the vagina, and if
you were seeing some of your countrymen being slaughtered
and killed and nothing is being said or done about it. I pray
that you would take the initiative to do something through
your government-- to encourage the International community
to ensure that those HUTU spread in the forest of Eastern
Congo can come out of the country and the TUTSI will cease
taking advantage of that particular situation, continuing
to push Eastern Congo into further chaos.